Oldland Windmill is an 18th century post-mill situated in the village of Keymer in the County of West Sussex. She is currently being restored to full working order by a dedicated team of local volunteers.

David, the diarist

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Diary November 2007 to October 2008

Long time since I last updated the Diary, my apologies, have been getting my sailing yacht seaworthy after 25 years laid up which took more time, and money, than I had bargained for.

November 2007Danny and Michael are starting to put together the mechanism that controls the gap between the millstones : the Tentering Gear.

The bottom stone, Bed Stone, is fixed and the top stone, Runner Stone, revolves.

Very fine adjustments are required as the stones, when grinding, are only about the thickness of a postcard apart.

This is done by a hand wheel and then the set gap is maintained at varying speeds by the centrifugal governor.

Tentering Gear

David cutting slot in stock to take U bolt clamp

The first U clamp was fitted which holds the whip to the stock using Roger's cherry picker.

Michael, Danny and Craig finished fitting the hornbeam teeth to the brakewheel. The brakewheel is fitted to the windshaft with wooden wedges and they started adjusting these to get the wheel to run true. First result was to get it running 1/8 inch out of circular and 1 inch of wobble on the flat plane at the rim. Further adjustments brought this down to the final running fit of 1/8 inch out of round and 1/8 inch out on the flat plane.

Wood wedges securing brakewheel onto windshaft

Philip fitting backstays

All four U clamps now fitted to the whips. Now safe to rotate the sweeps by hand or in a light wind but we need to make and fit six back braces from the trailing edge of each sweep to the stock before we can run in strong winds. Each back brace has to be measured for length and angle from the cherry picker.

December 2007Danny, Michael and Craig profiling the brakewheel teeth by using red lead on the iron teeth of the quant and sanding off the marked high spots until each tooth has a reasonably large contact area. Final bedding in will be done by running the millstones under load.

Roy was marking out the position and levels for a circular brick path for the bottom of the steps to rest on.

The floor under the millstone had to be raised 2 inches at the front so that it is at right angles to the quant.

A hole was then cut in the floor to let the millstone rest on its bearers.
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Hole cut in bin floor for bed stone

Danny cutting recess for bed stone

Michael's wind vane

Michael made a lovely wind vane and this was fitted to the roof using the cherry picker.

All off to Thatched Inn for a beer and lunch.

January 2008Lots of high winds and rain during the month so little work done outside. The front Bed stone fitted and levelled.

The back Bed stone is a French Burr and was fitted in position but not levelled as remaking the Tailwheel is a long way down the line.

Bed stone being lowered into position

February 2008Shutters closed and turning in the wind

Celebrating the first time the sweeps had turned under wind power

Last of the back braces fitted to the sweeps.

21ST FEBRUARY 2008 THE SWEEPS TURNED UNDER WIND POWER.

This may be the first time for about a hundred years although we do have records that suggest that the sweeps may have been turned, but no corn ground, in the 1930s.

Everything worked well and the sweeps seem to be in balance, however the windshaft bearings area little tight and we will be able to tell the balance better when the bearings are run in.

Started laying the brick path.

Laying the brick path

Roy laying the brick path

March 2008Brick path for steps completed.

Site between brick path and round house levelled and turf re-laid.

Bridge tree that supports the runner stone made and installed.

April 2008The quant was fitted in position, put into mesh with the brakewheel and run under wind power. Some chatter but thought that was because no load on it as runner stone still to be installed. Runner stone installed but not run.

Holly bearing for shaft supporting the runner stone. Bottom right is the mace which sits on the shaft and is driven by the quant

Quant in mesh with the mace

Shaft supporting runner stone on bridge tree

Leather scraper which rotates with the millstone and sweeps the flour down the hole into the spout

Runner stone being fitted above the bed stone

Runner stone in position

The spout to take flour from stones to the spout floor under construction. Work started on the weather boarded skirt which bridges the gap between mill body and roundhouse roof.

There are 13 oak hangers under the mill body to support the weatherboards and 8 ridges to the roof. It was decided to leave a gap of 2 to 3 inches between roof and skirt.

This meant taking 8 measurements with a plumb bob for each hanger as the mill was turned through 360 degrees over the ridges. A total of 204 measurements.

Michael Peat had constructed the wooden Tun, which encloses the millstones, at home and this was installed.

Work was started on the design of the Bin floor.

The tun, made by Michael, in position

May 2008Steps and ladder rungs on end wall to bin floor

The entrance to the bin floor was originally a ladder fixed to the rear wall of the mill in the sack hoist shaft but we decided to fit a hinged staircase, as well, for the use of visitors.

The 4th May was an Open Day. The marquee and stalls were located in the field opposite the mill. Sunny and hot with a good turnout of visitors whose generosity was much appreciated.

The walls of the roundhouse were originally covered in black pitch to waterproof the solid brick wall. We had demolished the original walls, salvaged the bricks, spent many hours chipping the bricks clean and used them to rebuild the walls.

The end result was very pleasing to the eye and a tribute to Roy and his assistant Gerry for fine bricklaying. Therefore it was with much regret, and a mini revolt from me, that we decided to stay with the original appearance and covered them with waterproof black paint.

Work continuing on the skirt.

Vandals at work

June 2008Roy's hopper sitting on Craig's horse on top of Michael's tun

Hopper fitted with strap which causes the bell to ring if hopper short of grain

Craig had made the Horse, part of the grain delivery system from bin floor to millstone eye, at home and it was installed on top of the Tun.

Oak joists being fitted for the bin floor.

Weather boarding being fitted to the skirt on the front of the mill.

Oak skirt hangers fitted to the sides of the mill and shape of the bottom curve established.

July 20086th July was our second Open Day. High winds and heavy rain spoilt the day.

Roundhouse roof cleaned, rubbed down and painted.

John cleaning the roundhouse roof

Joists for rear of bin floor fitted and floorboards being laid.

The bin floor is fairly unusual in that it is flat with a hole to feed the grain to the stones rather than an upside down pyramid hopper.

Craig fitting sides to grain bin

Bin floor under construction

Fred and Peter trimming the skirt

Weather boarding to skirt at the front of the mill completed.

August 2008

We used Plumpton College's cherry picker to wash down the mill, one undercoat and one top coat applied to the roof and top half of the body. We can use Roger's smaller Cherry picker for the remainder.

The paintwork was in good condition with very little priming needing to be done. It was painted in May 2003 so it has done well.

There was a debate as to whether to use scaffolding or a cherry picker to do the painting but it proved quite practical doing it from the cherry picker and saved a lot of money. The paint alone cost about £500 at £96 per 5 litre can.

Using Plumpton College's cherry picker to paint the roof

September 2008Mick and Ruth painting from cherry picker

We returned Plumpton College's cherry picker with many thanks and rushed to get the rest of the painting done by the Open Day on 21st September.

We had a lot of bad weather and only got the job done on time by working extra days.

The Flour Spout was made to take the flour from the millstones to the spout floor. Lots of work to get a super smooth varnished finish inside the spout so that the flour runs freely.

Keith with Ruth and her flour spout

Using Roger's cherry picker to paint sides of mill. Skirt framing in position

The framing to support the side skirt weatherboards ready but work delayed to enable the painting to be finished.

The Sack Hoist drive from the brakewheel is located at the front of the bin floor so support framing being done at the same time as the bin floor.

We have most of the sack hoist mechanism but it needs major repairs including new wood teeth to mesh with the brakewheel and new bearings for the shaft as we lost the old ones.

Sack hoist drive. New wooden teeth to be made on the edge of the iron wheel to engage with brakewheel teeth

September Open Day

21st September was an Open Day.

Lovely weather but not enough wind to turn the sweeps so we turned them by hand for the benefit of our visitors.

Record turnout, even when we were closing at 4pm there was a queue waiting to go in the mill.

October 2008The port side of the skirt finished and a very pleasing curve.

Fitting weather boarding to skirt

Roy fitting the new hatch

Skirt fitted

When we rebuilt the roundhouse in 2004 we patched up the old side hatch as we wanted to use as much of the original mill as possible but now the hatch is showing too much rot to be repaired. Roy made and fitted a new hatch.

THURSDAY 23rd OCTOBER 2008.
NICE STRONG WIND FROM THE SW. WE DECIDED TO SEE IF WE CAN MAKE FLOUR. CAREFUL SETTING UP OF THE MILLSTONES BY DANNY, RUN THE SWEEPS WITHOUT MESHING IN THE QUANT TO SEE IF THE SWEEPS TURN WITH SUFFICIENT SPEED, LOOKS GOOD, PUT THE STONES INTO GEAR AND, HEY PRESTO, WE HAVE FLOUR. I TOOK SOME HOME AT LUNCHTIME , BAKED A FRUITCAKE FROM IT AND WE HAD IT FOR TEA THE SAME DAY WITH CHAMPAGNE AND SLOE GIN.

We only made a bucket full of flour but it all ran smoothly. Work started on the mill restoration in 1980 but by 1990 it was decided that that the mill was in too bad a condition to restore and the only way forward was a complete rebuild. The mill was demolished and in 1995 the first of the new body frame was erected. So it has taken 13 years from that stage to make flour. As far as we can tell it is about 100 years since Oldland Windmill last ground.